Producing stereoscopic pictures by roentgen rays



(No Model.) I

E. THOMSON.

PRODUCING STEREUSUOPIU'PICTURES BY ROBNTGEN RAYS. No. 583,956. PatentedJune 8, 1897.

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UNITED STATES PATENT Erica.

ELIIIU THOMSON, OF SIVAMPSCOTT, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE GENERALELECTRIC COMPANY, OF NEW YORK.

PRODUCING STEREOSCOPIC PICTURES BY ROENTG EN RAYS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 583,956, dated June 8,1897. Application filed January 5, 1897. Serial No. 618,029. (No model.)

To all whmrt it iii/my concern.-

Be it known that I, ELIHU THOMSON, a citizen of the United States,residing at Swampscott, in the county of Essex, State of Massachusetts,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in ProducingStereoscopic Pictures by Roentgen Rays, (Case No. 501,) of which thefollowing is a specification.

My invention relates to the art of producing shadowgraphs, as they areoften called, by the use of Roentgen rays, and has for its object toproduce by this process pictures like those used in the stereoscope,giving an appearance of solidity.- By this means surgical examinationsare facilitated, the objects being seen as if solid, so that thelocation of foreign objects in the human body may be readily ascertainedwith. a precision not approached by any other process.

The mechanical details of my invention may be much varied.

I have illustrated in the accompanying drawings a means of applying themethod which I have devised; but any convenient apparatus may beutilized.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective of a simple appliance bywhich stereoscopic pictures may be produced, and Figs. 2 and 3 arediagrams showing the positions of the object on the plate.

In Fig. 1, B is a suitable base provided with uprights S S andacross-piece D. Upon the cross-piece is a clamp or other suitable devicefor holding a Crookes tube T, which is to be made the source of Roentgenrays in any suitable manner. The cross-piece D is secured to theuprights by pins 19 p and is provided with a number of holes, so that itmay be shifted laterally. Upon the base B is fixed a support IV of anysuitable nature, so arranged that a plate-holder P may be placed beneathit.

The manner of using the device is as follows: The object to beradiographed is placed upon the support W', which may be a piece of woodor cardboard or any other substance which the Roentgen rays will readilypenetrate. The plate-holder is then placed beneath it and the tube T isadjusted above at a suitable angle. An exposure is made upon the plate,which may then be removed to the radiographed at a different angle, sothat it v is slightly displaced on the plate beneath, and the relationof the shadows is such that when the two negatives, as shown in Figs. 2and 3, are properly developed they may be placed in the stereoscope andthus examined or may be photographically reduced, so as to be examinedmore conveniently when mounted upon a single card in the way customarywith photographic representations.

It is impossible to produce stereoscopic pictures of the class which Ihave described in the ordinary ways of making photographic exposures,Roentgen rays being incapable of focalization by refraction, so thatrelatively- I displaced lenses cannot be used.

So far as I am aware I am the first to produce pictures of the classdescribed by shifting the relative positions of the tube and object sothat the shadows are difierently outlined upon the plate to produce astereoscopic effect.

lVhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of theUnited States, is-

1. The art of producing stereoscopic pictures by the use of Roentgenrays, which consists in exposing the object to be photographed to asource of Roentgen rays in one position, and then shifting the relativepositions of the source of rays and the object, while making a secondexposure.

2. The art of producing stereoscopic pictures by the use of Roentgenrays, which consists in exposing a photographic plate to the action ofthe rays with the object to be photographed and the source of Roentgenrays in a certain definite relation to the plate, and then removing theplate and exposing a second one with the source of Roentgen rays and theobject to be photographed in a different position relative to the secondplate, thus displacing the shadows upon the two plates by an amountsu'fficient to give a stereoscopic or solid effect when viewed throughsuitable lenses.

8. A device for making stereoscopic pic- I In witness whereof I havehereunto set my tures by Roentgen rays, comprising a suphand this 31stdayof December, 1896. port for the object beneath which a suitablephotographic-plate holder may be placed, a 5 source of Roentgen rays,and means for shift- W'itnesses:

ing the relative positions of the source of rays JOHN W. GIBBONEY, andthe object. HENRY O. WESTENDARP.

ELIHU THOMSON.

